MLA South East supports the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s (MLA) Health and Mental Health Action Plan 2005-7. The plan's key objective is to develop the contribution museums, libraries and archives make to health and mental health.
The plan explores the national focus on health and well-being and has excellent references to documents and policies relating to mental and physical health. March 2005 saw the publication of the Department of Health's “Choosing Health” including “Delivering Choosing Health, making healthier choices easier”. Working in partnership across government with people, their communities, local government, voluntary agencies and business is a key element in delivering the plan.
Regional Focus
Health Information
Libraries are traditionally known as reliable centres of information and various programmes have been taking place across the region to enhance and develop this service. MLA South East is currently working with health partners, such as Primary Care Trusts (bibliotherapy), NHS Direct for training and information sharing and hospital libraries for improved understanding of shared priorities and audiences.
Healthy Living Centres
The John Pound Healthy Living Centre in Portsmouth is an example of a new pattern of local health care, providing leisure and fitness facilities, a youth centre, library, specialist IT and Arts/Crafts facilities, a GP Surgery and space for police and housing services. The redevelopment of the John Pounds site as a healthy living complex was identified by residents as a major element of the regeneration scheme for the area during community planning sessions in the late 1990s.
Libraries as Active Places
Libraries in the South East are being encouraged to use and promote sport and activity information through a new project funded jointly by Sport England South East and MLA South East. Working in partnership the project aims to help people build sport and physical activity into their daily lives through the Everyday Sport campaign and Active Places website.
Two project officers have been working with libraries in the South East focusing on promoting these two resources through public libraries. The South East pilot areas were Hampshire and Brighton & Hove, with training material made available to other authorities in the region. Libraries are often the first point of call for those wishing to find out about local activities and fitness centres. The new Public Library Impact Measures state that libraries should be “promoting healthier communities and narrowing health inequalities”. Sport England's "Gameplan 2002" says that the “biggest challenge is to get 70% of us reasonably active by 2020”. A detailed case study and activity toolkit is available to download from the right of the screen.
Books on Prescription and Bibliotherapy
Libraries across the region are making links with NHS trusts, Mental Health Practitioners and GP’s and offering “Books on Prescription”. The scheme allows specially chosen books to be prescribed by GP’s and mental health practitioners. Once issued, the prescription can be exchanged at the local library. In the South East, MLA South East has funded a project in Portsmouth. The Isle of Wight, West Berkshire, Medway and Kent have been taking part in similar schemes.
There is good evidence that the best self-help books can be highly effective in helping people with emotional problems. They are not medical books but contain good information which has been checked by mental health professionals.
For more details and information about these projects and further development in the area of health and well being contact Clare Lavis, Partnerships & Projects Manager, clare.lavis@mlasoutheast.org.uk.
Reminiscence Work
Reminiscence work is an activity supported and undertaken by many museums, libraries and archives in the South East, often working in partnership with other agencies, for example Age Concern. The process of recall and remembering in groups can involve or lead to participation in the arts and in further learning. In this way, the health and social benefits can be maximised by the additional opportunities for creative learning museums, libraries and archives can bring. In the 2005 Annual Report of the South East Regional Director of Public Health older people are the focus. The report looks at the health and well-being of those aged 65 and over and the way in which housing conditions and independent living affect the lives of the elderly, and at how well our health and social services care for the vulnerable.
Words and Wings
Words and Wings: A Guide to Creative Reminiscence Work was the outcome of Drawn from Memory, a project funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) through their Museums and Galleries Lifelong Learning Initiative (MGLI). It enabled ideas for creative reminiscence workshops for older people to be trialled in Oxfordshire.
The project showed that taking reminiscence work beyond nostalgia produced some exciting results. For example, some learners were encouraged to try out computers for the first time while others produced some amazing creative writing based on their experiences in rural Oxfordshire and stimulated by collections of artefacts from rural museums.
If you would like to know more about how to work with and deliver reminiscence sessions the Guide takes you through some of the sessions step by step.
Remember When
Remember When draws on the experience of a partnership project between Worthing Museum and Art Gallery and East Tyne Day Centre, looking at how to run sessions at Care Homes and Day Centres using museum objects.
The Remember When Resource Pack brings together examples from West Sussex museums and is aimed at those beginning to work with the elderly. If you are interested in doing Reminiscence work the Resource Pack provides information on preparing and planning for sessions as well as tips and advice on running sessions.
BIG Lottery Well-being
A summary of the MLA South East bid to the Big Lottery is available for you to read at the bottom of the screen. If you would like more information, please contact Clare Lavis, Partnerships & Projects Manager, clare.lavis@mlasoutheast.org.uk. You may also like to see information and ideas for projects that came out of a meeting after the bid failed to receive any funding (available from the bottom of the screen).
For South East libraries involvement in health-related projects, visit our libraries section.
